


I'm Roy Shepard and this is my favourite class on the Citadel

by PimeydenNinja



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Human, F/M, First Meetings, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-07
Updated: 2018-12-23
Packaged: 2019-06-06 17:29:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15199841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PimeydenNinja/pseuds/PimeydenNinja
Summary: You never know who might sit next to you in classroom. It could be a loudmouthed football player or a phone addicted girl who tries to take selfies during a lesson. Or like in Steve Cortez's case, to his luck, it was a really tired and yet a very attractive young man.





	1. Energy drinks and streetfights

**Author's Note:**

> So since this is a college AU, let's assume everyone (except college's staff of course) are 19 or 20 or something xD 
> 
> Some info before you read:  
> -All the aliens are humans in this fic. I might post my drawings of them in my instagram or tumblr profile.  
> -Citadel is the name of their school. I came up with that when I was trying to come up with a name. Buut this time Shepard doesn't claim that about every class.
> 
> I might add more info

It was Monday 13th 6.50am when Steve Cortez walked into algebra class. Whoever thought algebra at 7am on Monday was a good idea was out of their mind... Thank God for coffee. He walked in to the classroom and looked around until he saw his friend Tali in 5th row. He walked over to her and sat down on her right side.  
"Did you sleep at all last night or did you read all night?"  
"Huh? Oh hi Steve. When did you come here?"  
"Just 10 seconds ago." he laughed at his friend. Tali was a nice girl. She was average height, skinny, her eyes were clear gray an her hair was long and black. It appeared she had actually managed to comb it this morning. Usually it was all a mess. Sometimes Steve had thought that if he would be into girls, he would definitely be after Tali. But no. Gay as hell.  
The classroom door opened and in walked really, really, REALLY tired looking guy. At first Steve didn't pay much attention to him as he turned back at Tali. That's when he heard footsteps coming closer to him.  
"Is this seat taken?" a hoarse voice asked.  
"No. All yours."  
"Thanks." the guy put down his bag and nearly collapsed at his seat. Steve wondered if he should ask if the guy was okay but he decided against it. Monday mornings were not for everyone. Instead he pulled out his phone and wrote a message to his friend Kaidan. They had agreed to meet during lunch break. Suddenly he could smell coffee. Strong one. Even Tali noticed the smell as they both turned to look at the guy next to Steve. He had open thermos bottle on the table and in his hand he had monster energy drink. He opened the can and poured the drink in his thermos.  
"I'm going to die." he said and drank the whole thing while Steve and Tali looked at him with pure horror. This guy just shaked his head and stopped as he realized he was being watched.  
"I didn't introduce myself did I?" he smiled "Roy Shepard. Nice to meet you. Don't you guys hate 7am classes. Ugh never liked Mondays either. Like Garfield. Wise cat. Maybe I'm like him. I love lasagna. Wonder what is on the menu today..." he was rambling. Probably a side-effect to his drink. He took out his notebook and started to write something like he's some Alexander Hamilton 2.0. Steve looked at Tali with concern but his friend didn't even notice him. She was staring at this guy with a blush on her face. It was no wonder though... Steve turned to look at the guy again. He was attractive though... He had blue eyes (with shadows under them), sandy blond hair which was shaved short from sides and back and long from top, with few braids and a mid bun. He had quite a sharp jaw line, 5 earrings on the left ear and piercing on his lower lip. There seemed to be a feint scar over his left eyebrow. Even with his big hoodie it was clear he was well build. Okay now Steve was blushing. Thank God for his dark skin colour, for it wasn's so easy for people to notice if he did blush. "Who was that fucking genious who came up with the idea of having 7am classes on Monday? Should just shoot the guy... Monday 13th has never been kind for me. Last time some jerk almost drove over me. Probably drunk." Steve wasn't really sure if this Shepard was talking to him or just to himself. Well he decided to listen anyway so the guy wouldn't seem like completely like crazy. Suddenly he felt like he was being stared at. He turned around and saw a few girls glaring at him. Never in his life had someone looked at him like that. Why now...? "You okay man?" he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked at his right just to see Shepard's face way too close to his. He glanced at the girls and saw they were almost angry. Now he got it. These girls had hots for Shepard. He looked back at the guy, deep in his eyes. "Wow... You have such a pretty eyes." Shepard suddenly said. Now Steve was sure this guy could definitely see the blush on his cheeks. Their little moment was interrupted when the professor walked in. Shepard just turned back to his notebook and continued his writing like nothing has happened. Steve found himself missing that intense gaze. The rest of the class went as a daze. Steve couldn't really concentrate to what the professor was saying as his mind kept wandering to Shepard next to him. There was something fascinating about this guy... Finally the class ended and the girls from before showed up next to their table. "Hi Roy." this real barbie type of girl said as she curled a strand of hair in her fingers. "You want to come to the cafetaria with us?" her frind asked. "Our treat." girl number one again. The other girls touched Shepard's arm which made the guy jump. He turned to look at the girls and Steve could see him taking out an earbud from his right ear. It was understandable that he kept only one earbud on during a lesson but Steve couldn't help but to hope it was right one since he was on Shepard's left side. Maybe this guy had expected him to talk to him. "What? Is the class over?" he looked at the clock and started to pack his stuff with hurry "Shiiit I need to go! Bye... Umm..." Shepard turned to Steve "You. Thanks for letting me sit here. Bye!" and just like that he sprinted out of the classroom, leaving stunned girls and Cortez and Tali behind. It was now Wednesday and Steve had not yet forgotten his meeting with Shepard on Monday. He was at lunch with his frends but eating wasn't really first thing on his mind as he just kept pushing his food around the plate with his fork. "Yo Esteban!" he came back to his senses as he felt someone slap his back. He turned his head and glared at his old friend James Vega. "What do you want, mister Vega?" "Just wondering why so gloomy. Also wanted to ask if you were going to eat that apple pie." "Just take it." Steve pushed the dessert plate at Vega. "Gracias." James said and took the plate "But back to the point. Why so gloomy?" Steve looked up and saw all his friends looking at him. His regular group of friends consisted Vega, Kaidan Alenko, Jeff Moreau a.k.a Joker, Liara T'Soni and Tali. Vega was a good guy, though way too loud and full of himself. Alenko was calm and smart dude with this weird hairstyle. Steve had never understood why he insisted to have that Elvis Presley hairdo. Joker... Well as the name implied, he really liked to joke and fool around. Tali was a huuuge Doctor Who fan and ofter had some merchandice with her. Liara was the one who stood out the most. Though her clothes were mostly white or gray, her hair was dyed electric blue. It matched her blue eyes. She also had freckles and always wore glasses. Steve had met them all through James. "Nothing really... Just wondering something." "You sure? You seem distracted?" Alenko asked with concern. "Yeah. I was just thinking how I could use some fresh air. I think I'm going outside now." Steve got up and gathered his stuff. Maybe he just wanted to get away from others for a while. To gather his thoughts before the next class.

"That's a good idea. We should all go." Liara said as she got up after Steve. Rest of their group agreed and walked outside.

They walked around some minutes until they saw perfect spot under a tree at the campus park. The whole walk was just James complaining how his gym rival had beat his pull-up record again. This rival was pretty famous among their little group. He was some other first year guy who James had run into at the gym on their first week. Apparently this rivalry had started when the guy had beaten James in weight lifting. It was amusing to see James act like a child over something like that. Not that Steve would ever admit it since Vega was his good friend after all.  
"I trained so hard to get to 182 and what does he do? He pulls 183!!! One more than my record! He's doing it just to piss me off."  
"Calm down, big guy. He probably get tired of this soon enough and you can be champion of the gym again." Joker said as he patted James's shoulder.  
"I don't want him to give up! I want to crush him in fair battle."  
"You call that battle? It's just a stupid competition. So chill." Kaidan said with unimpressed look.  
"Stupid competition? Wow Alenko... I just lost all respect towards you."  
"Oh well I just need to live my life without it. But I'm more conserned of out Steve here. You're still in your own worlds." damm Kaidan almost too observant.  
"Just tell us what's going on. No matter what it is." Liara said as she walked next to Steve.  
Steve looked at his friends. Never before had he got such a friends who accepted him no matter what. Even after he told them about his sexuality, they all assured him that it was fine. Vega even told him that he would beat up anyone who dared to bully Cortez over it. Perhaps he could tell about his little crush on this Shepard guy.  
"You guys sure you want to hear it?" everyone nodded "Okay this Monday this one really, and I mean REALLY, attractive guy sat next to me in algebra class. He then drank down whole thermos of coffee and energy drink and first acted like duracell bunny on caffeine rush. Then I noticed some girls glaring at me and then he was right there sooo close and he said I had pretty eyes and I kept thinking of him for the rest of the class. Then before he left he said 'bye' to me. Long story short I've been hoping to see him again since that."  
"Wait. You talking about that blond hottie." Tali looked away with thoughful expression. "I've been thinking about him too to be honest..."  
"Ooh dramaaaa!" Joker said all excited.  
Steve was sure that out of the two of them, Tali would have better chance with this guy. Who was he kidding. This guy was probably straight. And there's no way he could resist cute and petite girl like Tali. Well he would root for his friend's happiness even if his own heart would get broken.  
"What was his name though...?"  
They heard a noice coming nearby. Steve got up and walked towards the voice. The voice was coming from behind a small cottage. As first he hesitated, thinking there might be some couple having a... Private situation. But as he walked closer he recognized some words.  
"Whatcha gonna do about it, oh all mighty 'Legion' Gonna cry and beg me to be nice to you." black haired guy, with some other bullies behind him, said to this meek little guy with grayish hair which covered his eyes. Poor guy on his knees on the ground collecting his books, which were probably thrown to the ground by this... Well bully.  
"You got some nerve..." this guy said with disgust "First you bump into me and refuse to apologize and now..." he kicked some sand on the guy.  
"Isn't that one the kid who's studying engineering with us? Leo or something..." Joker whispered to Steve. Now that he thought about it... This guy did take some same classes as him.  
"Shouldn't we help him?" Liara asked.  
"What would he learn from that? Just let him handle it." James said as he started to walk away.  
Steve felt bad for this boy but he was... Well kinda afraid of helping. He had been bullied before and had hoped to not get the attention of bullies again in college.  
"HEY!" a new voice piped it. Steve and his friends turned their heads to see a guy with hood on walk up to this bully, grab his shoulder and turn him around and punch him. Right to the face. Bully didn't wait to return the punch.  
"Wow this is turning out to become a real fight!" James came back just to see how this hooded guy threw the bully to the ground. He pulled off his hood and Steve's breath hitched. It was Shepard.  
"Get this, Kai Leng." he said his name with voice full of disgust and hate "You mess with the pup, you need to deal with a whole pack."  
"Oh boy here we go. Shepard is pulling us into trouble again." new voice piped in.  
"Shut up Garrus! Thane, you guys help Legion and get out of here. I have a feeling there's trouble coming." Shepard said to other of the two new guys who just showed up.  
"As always." Shepard's friend said as he walked over to the boy on the ground and helped him to collect his books "Come on kid. Let's go."  
"You sure you don't need any help Shepard?" other of the guys asked.  
"Hah." he cracked his knuckles "Positive. You guys just go on ahead." Shepard answered and three other guys walked away and left Shepard to deal with Leng and his minions.  
"Oh great. Of course it's Roy. Well this is going to be boring match." James said. His voice made it clear he knew very well how this fight would go.  
"You know him?!" rest of the group turned to look at James, more or less shocked.  
"Didn't I tell? He's that gym rival of mine I've told you about. We've sparred few times and he always wins. Lucky bastard..."  
All those times Vega had asked Steve to join him to the gym... He could have met Shepard earlier. They could be friends. But this was not the time or place to think about it.  
"Your freak of a friend bumbed into me and refused to apologize." Leng said all serious. Shepard looked at him with amusement as he started to laugh.  
"What's the matter Kai? Afraid that some of his geniousness is going to rub on to you. Trust me when I say it but you would need that." he said as he wiped away some blood under his nose. Seemed like Leng had hit him pretty hard. Though he didn't look any better...  
"You might like that freak circus of yours but you keep those fucking creeps away from me or I..." Leng didn't have time to end his sentence since Shepard grapped him from the collar and pushed against a nearby tree.  
"You say one more word about my friends and I swear I will destroy you." Shepard hissed at him.  
"You wouldn't dare."  
Shepard was clearly about to answer something but was disturbed by a man behing them. Neither of them had not seen him there until he cleared his throat. Shepard let go of Leng and both guys stood up straight.  
"Well well young misters Shepard and Leng. Could you explain what happened this time." principal Hackett said as he looked at the boys with a serious expression.  
"Why have us tell when we have eye witnesses. Right guys? Guys?" Leng looked around in order to find his friends, but they were nowhere to be seen.  
"And as if I would believe what your friends say." Hackett said "What will I do with you... No matter how I punish you, you still keep fighting."  
Without really thinking this through, Steve started to walk over to the three men under the tree. He heard his friends's voices tell him to go back to them but he ignored them.  
"Principal." Cortez said and all three men turned to look at him "I saw what happened."  
"Oh? Let's talk over there." Hackett said as he nodded towards the bench about 20 meters away from them "And if you two start to fight again I swear I give you a punishent you will never forget."  
"Yes sir." they agreed in unison.  
Steve and Hackett walked over to the bench and Steve could feel Shepard's intence gaze on him. He was probably thinking that Steve would definitely tell he was the one who punched first.  
"So?" Hackett turned to face Cortez "What happened?"  
"Leng was bullying this guy Leo and Shepard showed up to help his friend. He tried to talk some sense into Leng but he refused to listen and punched Shepard. He had to defend himself."  
Hackett looked at Steve with his normal cold stare. It seemed like he was trying to figure out if Cortez had any reason to lie, but couldn't come up with anything.  
"I believe you, mister Cortez. I don't see a reason why you would lie." he looked at the two guys under the tree "To be honest your story makes sense. Shepard's not the type to attack without reason while Leng... Well between you and me, he's just that kind of an asshole. I'm surprised he didn't try to attack behind Shepard's back. You never tell anyone I said this, right?"  
"No sir!"  
"Good. Now I need to deal with Leng. SHEPARD!" Shepard turned around as his name was called "Cortez will take you to the nurse. Leng! In my office. NOW." Hackett started to walk away. Both Leng and Shepard looked stunned but soon both realized what had probably happened.  
"I won't forget this." Leng said as he walked past Cortez. Oh great. He had made an enemy... Steve sighed out and walked over to Shepard.  
"Shall we go? You need ice or something for that nose." he started to walk towards the main building but Shepard didn't follow.  
"Why did you do something like that for a stranger? Leng will keep that promise and never forget this."  
'For a stranger'? He really didn't remember him.  
"You probably don't remember me but you sat next to me on Monday during our algebra class. You even introduced yourself."  
"Oh honey. I have no memory of that class. It was 7am on Monday. First I was dead tired and next I was... Well..."  
"Like some duracell bunny on caffeine rush. Yeah I noticed."  
Shepard didn't answer. He was standing still, few feet away from Steve, looking at him like he was thinking something really hard.  
"You..." oh boy what now "Have a familiar eyes though... Yeah... I think I remember something now..." okay Steve was blushing again. "I talked about lasagna didn't I?"  
"Yes. And at the end of the class some girls asked you to join them to cafetaria but you pretty much ignored them. And then you just said bye and left."  
"Hmm? I think that did happen... Well anyway, I'm Roy Shepard. And you?"  
"Steve Cortez." Steve held out his hand and Shepard was about to take it but changed his mind when he noticed the blood on his hand.  
"I think I should head to the infirmary now... I doubt Leng managed to break anything but I just love to bother Chakwas."  
"Let me walk you there. Hackett did told me to accompany you there."  
"No need. You probably have better things to do." Shepard smiled at him and Steve couldn't help but to feel disappointed.  
"Oh... Yeah okay. Maybe we'll see each other again later."  
"I would love that. But you know..." he seemed to think of something. He started to dig something from his bag and after a while pulled out a sketchbook and a pen. He ripped a piece of paper and wrote something to it. Steve waited patiently until Shepard handed a paper to him. There was Shepard's name written on the top and under it was a phone number and... A heart? Oooh boy...  
"Don't hesitate to contact me if Leng gives you trouble. Or if you want to talk about... I don't know. Movies or something. But as much as I would love to stay here and talk, I should go. Bye Steve." he grabbed his bag and started to walk away. He had a bad habit of leaving like that.


	2. Maybe this party wasn't a bad idea

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This party may not have been one Steve Cortez really wanted to attend but maybe a surprise meeting with a well known classmate could change his mind. 
> 
> A.k.a Poor Steve being a bit awkward.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for the long wait! Had been having some anxiety and stress so haven't really been able to write...  
> So here you have this short chapter. This was mostly for me to get my drive for writing back and it worked since I'm already getting some new ideas. 
> 
> This is kinda like Chapter 2 part 1.

It was 4 pm at Friday when Steve Cortez finally arrived to his dorm room, which he shared with his friend Kaidan Alenko. Steve really hoped he could just go to sleep till next week but sadly he had a physics paper due Monday.

"Hey Steve" Kaidan said and looked at him over the magazine he was reading. "You look tired. Today was that bad huh?"

"Just didn't get that much sleep last night. Combine that with some loooong and boring classes and you get this look." Steve answered as he put his bag on the floor next his bed.

"So I take it you're not too excited about that party Joker is going to drag us?"

"Party? What party?"

"didn't he send you a message?" Kaidan asked.

Now that Steve thought about it, he hadn't checked his phone since he turned off the alarm that morning. He started to search trough his bag until he located his phone. Oh, the phone was shut off. After he turned it on the first thing he noticed 3 missed calls from Joker and a lot of messages. He went through the messages and they were all about same things: Blahblah party blah blah tonight blah blah a lot of exclamation marks.

"Yeah I got the messages. Seems like my phone had shut off. Should just get a new one..."

"Yeah I've heard that one before. You should rest now so you're ready for tonight." Kaidan said and turned his attention back to his magazine.

"Oh I'm not going. I have paper due Monday."

"You actually think Joker will accept that excuse? He won't take no for an answer."

It was true. No matter how many times Steve would refuse to go, Joker would not give up. There would be endless messages and calls and once those would fail Joker would run over to their room and bother Steve for the rest of the evening. Then he would definitely not get any work done.

"I guess easiest way for me would be to agree to go, get a drink and sneak out when Joker is distracted." Steve said and crossed his arms over his chest. This strategy had been proven efficient before and Steve had no reason to think this time would be any different. His friends were so predictable.

"Sounds like a plan." Kaidan answered. "So what are you going to wear?"

 

 

Seriously what the fuck? First Steve was dragged to the party (partly against his will) and then his friends abandoned him. He was supposed to abandon them when the time was right! He took his drink and decided to go search his friends. He made his way towards the dancefloor since the best odds were he could find some of his friends. Ugh why did this happen...? Why had he agreed to come to this stupid party? He could be at his room, drinking tea and working on his paper. He could...

That's when Steve walked against something solid. Well actually to someone. Luckily he didn't spill his drink on this guy's coat.

"I'm so..." his apology was cut off when this guy turned around and smiled.

"Hey babe, good thing you found me. I was already wondering where you were." this guy said and leaned in to kiss Steve's cheek. And that's when Steve realized who this guy was. It was none other than Roy Shepard. Steve felt his breath hitch. Shepard moved his head a little so he could talk directly to Steve's ear without the girls behind him noticing.

"Please play along, I don't know these girls and they won't leave me alone." he said and looked Steve in the eyes. He nodded which made Shepard smile brightly. Really brightly... Did all these people walk slowmotion? Shepard moved next to Steve and wrapped his left arm around his waist.

"I hate to cut this interesting conversation short, but my boyfriend is here now so I bid you ladies farewell." he ended his speech with a theatrical bow.

"Aww come ooon." one of the girls whined "Let us join you guys." other girls joined the chorus but Shepard silenced them with a single wave of his hand.

"Sorry but no. We haven't been able to spend time together lately and would appreciate some... privacy." the word 'privacy' came with a suggestive wink. "Come on Steve. I'll buy you a drink." Shepard removed his hand from Steve's waist and took a hold of his hand before leading the two of them towards the bar counter.

 

"Thanks for the help. That was an annoying situation." Shepard finally spoke as they arrived at the counter. He leaned to the counter and used his free hand to wave at the bartender. 

"Well I didn't really do anything. Just stood there..."

"That was more than enough. Sorry for touching without permission." a sudden realization seemed to hit him and he looked down to their still intertwined hands. "And I'm still doing it." Shepard said with a laugh as he let go of Steve's hand.

"It's okay. You had to make it look real." Steve answered with a smile and tried to hide his disappointment. Did his hand always felt so empty and cold?

"Yeah. But guess what is real? I'll pay your drinks for tonight."

"Well this night is turning out better than I thought. Free drinks and some physical contact from you." Steve felt like slapping himself. 'Physical contact from you'? Who says something like that??? Oh god that was so creepy... Maybe he didn't hear...

"Hah, stick around." Shepard laughed "This night could get better." he said and ended the sentence with a wink. He turned his attention to the bartender and ordered beers for the both of them.

 

After a brief searching they managed to find small table near the dancefloor.

"Thanks for the drink." Steve said as he got comfortable on his chair. "So... I couldn't help but notice you remember my name?" it wasn't supposed to come out sounding like a question but it was too late to correct that now. Shepard looked at him curiously for a moment.

"Of course I remember. You've already helped me out twice now. Damn one more time and I'll be owing you more than a few drinks."

"Happy to help." Steve answered with a smile. He truly was happy... "So you have any idea what kind of punishment Leng got?"

"No." Shepard shrugged. "Honestly I don't even care as long he leaves my friends alone." he took a sip out of his drink. "And that includes you. Leng gives you any trouble don't hesitate to tell me."

Steve could feel his heart beat faster. Shepard actually considered him as a friend even though they had met just a few times. And what more he was ready and willing to defend Steve against Leng. Not that the idea of being assaulted by Leng was anyway tempting itself but the idea of Shepard rushing for his rescue was a nice image.

"I did gave you my number didn't I?" Shepard asked and Steve nodded bit embarrassed. He had added Shepard's number in his contact list but still kept that piece of paper the number was written on.

"You know.." Shepard started bit hesitant. "You know you can contact me anyway. It doesn't need to be about Leng. We can talk about other stuff too." Shepard said with a charming smile. "I would like to get to know you better."

"Yeah. I would like that too."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this really is not my best chapter. Definitely not. But I swear I will come up something better for 3rd chapter. I just really had no idea where I was going with this chapter. But as I was writing this I came up with some ideas for the next chapter. So I apologize for all of you who may have read this fic for that long wait. I try to do better...

**Author's Note:**

> So this was the first chapter. Hope you guys liked it. Well if you found it I mean. Since I just heard some people aren't even aware that Cortez is romance option in the game D: he needs more love...
> 
> Well anyway. If you liked this, please leave comment or kudos.  
> Thank you and have a nice day :D


End file.
